


A Promise Kept

by Kralj



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: F/M, Remake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:49:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26768293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kralj/pseuds/Kralj
Summary: Cloud made a promise to protect Tifa years ago. Will he keep on that promise, when she needs him most?(Slight novelization and set during the Cloud/Tifa resolution scene in Chapter 14)
Relationships: Tifa Lockhart/Cloud Strife
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	A Promise Kept

He was sleeping - okay, he was trying to sleep. Cloud wasn’t much for a deep sleeper. He couldn’t even remember if he had always had trouble, or if the Mako infusions from the SOLDIER program started this mess. His mind would constantly jump from one thought and memory to another, but somehow he would always return to Aerith. Aerith, that girl he barely knew, who’d shared a flower and saved his life. That girl was locked up now, in Dr. Hojo’s lab, above the poverty and rock below, deep in the heart of Midgar, the city that never sleeps. She could fight, maybe even hold her own - yet Marlene said she’d gone willingly with Shinra. 

Now Cloud was spending that night at Aerith’s home. He lay on the floor, his six foot Buster sword right next to him, knees pulled up and back against the wall. His ‘friend’ Barret, a hulking giant of a man with a distinctive buzzcut and shades to match the night and his skin. Tifa, his childhood friend, rested in another room, guarding Aerith’s step mother. Marlene was his young stepdaughter, a bright and happy girl with little knowledge of Barret’s true workings or the influence of Shinra, the rulers of Midgar. She was wrapped snug in a small bed, fast asleep. 

That was a fate unshared by Aerith, a pet research subject of the infamous Dr. Hojo. Aerith spoke little of her time there as a child, before managing to escape with her real mother who would soon after perish. Barret lamented the bright lights, the steel, the concrete of Midgar, fueled by the planet’s “lifeblood”, Mako. Aerith didn’t even have the luxury of that. Her room was concrete, and without windows. Now, Cloud lay in a modest wood home, the walls painted white and finished well. 

Hojo. There was something about him. Not good. Cloud’s mind raced over and over, he closed his eyes, grit his teeth even, trying to remember, yet he couldn’t. There weren’t any details left. Yet the emotion remained - do not trust Hojo. 

Cloud took a breath for a moment. Looking at the giant snoozing next to his daughter, Cloud was reminded of Avalanche, the group he’d joined thanks to Tifa, the rebellion against Mako and Shinra. He was in it for the money, that’s what he told himself initially. But after joining the group, going on missions, reconnecting with Tifa, he’d become a part of them. It didn’t feel so bad either. There were three others: Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. 

Jessie was a stunning girl, her hair long and brown strung in a ponytail, a red bandana wrapped around her head, with dark hazel eyes to match. She had wanted to be an actress at the Gold Saucer. _She was an actress alright_ , smirked Cloud shaking his head. There’d be no end to her flirtation, even on missions, though perhaps some of those feelings were genuine. She was spunky, a go-getter, ready to take on some action. Cloud liked that. Biggs was like that too - jet black spiky hair, tall and lean, and always with a gun in one hand. You could trust him to do anything. He was even a legend among the slums of Midgar. A good guy.

Now their bodies lay crushed in sector seven, broken, bloody, and smashed with their dreams by the weight of God knows how many steel beams and concrete blocks. Cloud’s hand turned into a fist for a moment. They were so close, they could have stopped it. Wedge, the fat yet golden hearted lived, yet those…. things! Formless ghosts, and those strange men, and the hallucinations, and…. Sephiroth. Sephiroth! Comrade and mass murderer.He was out there still, Cloud could feel it. _After I get Aerith and deal with Hojo, you’re next._

Yet suddenly Cloud’s ears perked up. He heard footsteps. The kind of footsteps that were shy, that did not want to be heard yet could never escape his SOLDIER magnifications. Each step caused just the smallest creek in the wooden panels, and soon the sound traveled far and below, growing softer in time. Cloud wasn’t sure what to think, but he never took any chances. He grabbed his buster sword and sneaked out of Marlene and Barret’s room, headed for the first floor. 

The light was on in the living room, but nobody was around. Cloud peered out through the window to see a feminine figure standing off at the edge of Aerith’s hills and gardens. Aside from a few tiny bulbs, there was only one lamppost - standing tall and bright, where the figure stood. Cloud squinted for a moment, looking into the darkness and into the light. Tifa? _What’s she doing there, up so late?_

Cloud opened the door and took a winding path through Aerith’s garden toward Tifa on her lone hill. Crickets of the night sang their song, and Cloud provided the beat of the drum with each footstep. However, Tifa was unphased, looking off in another direction. Cloud got a better look at her for a moment, from the back. Tifa was muscular, lean, and a bit shorter than him. She had bright red boots and gloves, the bane of many bandits and Shinra soldiers. What always took Cloud’s view though most was her hair, long, and black, near the length of her back, and wrapped in a small bracer at the end. It matched much of her black athletic clothing. 

Cloud took a step through some flowers on the hill. “Can’t sleep?”

Tifa replied back quietly. “No. You too?”

“I heard footsteps,”

Tifa’s head turned down for a moment. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you,”  
  
“I’m a light sleeper. It’s a SOLDIER thing," Cloud smiled for a moment, turning his head up and looking off in the distance of Aerith’s fast gardens. Tifa laughed at the comment, and slowly turned her body to face him 

“That flower the other night. That was from Aerith, wasn’t it?” 

Cloud stammered for a moment and quickly glanced down. It had been from Aerith, when they first met, and had barely known each other. The flower merchant turned damsel in distress. Cloud wasn’t sure how to feel. He’d barely known her, yet he wanted to risk everything to go off and save her. His mother would have liked her. Things were complicated with Tifa. They’d known each other growing up, and Cloud always felt attached to her, but he left for the SOLDIER program. Had he ever crossed Tifa’s mind in all those years he left training? 

Tifa chuckled lightly again at Cloud’s response. “I knew there was something weird going on. You, buying flowers,”

 _Weird?_ Cloud’s face turned again, and his emotions were as muddled as his memories for a moment. His eyes were brought down to the field below, the yellow flower that he’d gotten from Aerith, and given to Tifa after he returned from his first successful mission with Avalanche. The bombing of Mako Reactor 5. Tifa had been standing right at the entrance of the Seventh Heaven, their cute bar and clandestine terrorist cell, tucked away in sector seven. Cloud was reminded for a moment, taking a fraction of his promised pay that night, and Jessie with a wide grin on her face, remarking about the news making a statement about their “eco-terrorism”. She was gone now, Biggs, and his mother too. 

“They symbolize reunion, believe it or not. I was curious, so I looked it up,”. Something started to catch inside Tifa’s throat. “I started to keep it alive for as long as I could, but now… it’s dead and buried,”

Cloud slowly turned his eyes back to Tifa. A small tear began to form on her cheek, her voice was choked, and her fingers curled into a fist with great force. 

“Like the bar… our home… and everything else,” Tifa’s words barely managed to escape without a few sniffles. She began to take a few steps toward Cloud, closing the distance, and Cloud could notice a few tears running down her cheeks. She placed her head against Cloud’s chest, resting her arms against him as well, much to Cloud’s surprise as he let out a mix between a gasp and a grunt. “They took everything from us. Again.” 

Cloud stood there partially motionless, his arms off to the side like a soldier. Tifa’s voice hiccuped further, and soon she was crying, burying her face into Cloud’s soft wool sweater. Cloud could feel her cling to him, the weight of something real against himself, yet he stood there motionless, conflicted. His eyes barely even moved, but his thoughts ran from one thing to the next. Everything he’d ever wanted as a kid, he was having it right now - an adult, strong and tall and a SOLDIER, and Tifa. He’d made a promise to her, years ago, as kids. 

_“When we’re older, and you’re a famous SOLDIER… if I’m ever trapped or in trouble… promise you’ll come and save me… come on, promise me!”_

_“Fine,” I said, awkwardly. “I promise”._

_Are you a boy, or a man?_

Cloud’s arms crawled slowly across his sides, fighting against an unseen force, before they quickly closed around and embracing Tifa. They were together now, after so many years. Cloud’s eyes closed for a moment, and he remained standing still. He could feel Tifa cling to him, resting one hand on her chest, and another on his exposed shoulder. Tifa’s fingertips pressed hard into his muscle, causing Cloud only to tighten his grip around her more. In truth, he could hardly believe that any woman would have hugged him as tightly as Tifa was now. She was crying. _I know. I want to cry too._

While Tifa buried her head in the crook of his neck, Cloud’s head turned upward, keeping a watchful eye for a few moments. Cloud wrinkled his fingers, covered in strong leather gloves. He kept his hands on Tifa’s back, but he imagined for a moment that his gloves were missing, and that he could run his hand through Tifa’s flowing black hair. Closing his eyes, he tried to forget about everything. A second, an hour, a day, who knows how much time had truly passed. Eventually, though, Tifa’s words began to register in his ears. 

“Cloud… Cloud… you’re hurting me,” 

_What?_ Cloud quickly disengaged from Tifa, afraid of causing her damage. _I was coming on strong… maybe literally._ Tifa took a few steps back however, unphased, her arms still up as if holding Cloud. She wiped away a few tears left on her cheek and shook her head. Hey eyes were still locked on the ground, on Aerith’s yellow flowers of reunion. “It’s stupid. I know that crying is a waste of time,”. 

_Hey._ He took a step forward. “That’s not true,” 

Tifa turned her head up from Aerith’s flowers and met instead with Cloud’s green, mako-infused eyes. Hers were hazel, just as beautiful as that moment she’d made him a similarly colored drink after coming back from work. 

“Thank you.”

Cloud walked up to Tifa, closing the distance between them again. He passed just next to her and offered his hand nonchalantly which Tifa readily accepted. Quickly their fingers locked with each other, tightening their grip. His gloves were still on, but Cloud didn’t care. They didn’t exchange another word with each other, but walked in calm silence back to Aerith’s house, across the gardens and wooden bridges. They would need the rest for tomorrow’s battle.


End file.
